Back to the Mountains.
Dear Friends –
We would be lying if we said we didn’t leave a tear or two in Fremont, NE yesterday. With 36 shows and over 10,000 miles under our belts, we packed the car for the last time on this tour and pointed our wheels toward Boulder. There are too many tales and lessons to record in this brief email, but below you’ll find a tiny memory from each show on the second half of our tour from Madison to Maine to NY to Nashville and all the way back to Omaha.
Here are our major nuggets of newly found knowledge:
- We absolutely love making music and touring. Our scrappy, annoyingly disciplined day-to-day habits make us uniquely suited to this way of living. Going forward, we aim to spend as much time playing music as possible.
- Friends are the key. As we traveled the country this summer, we made a lot of new pals and spent quality time with our dear old homies. Lovers of music and creativity and travel and deep hangouts and delicious food need to stick together! It’s our greatest hope that this music brings something valuable and authentic into your lives. We just can’t do any of this without you all.
We feel overwhelmed with gratitude for your support and friendship. Now that we’re out of the tour Honda and back into reality, we’ll build a new album and plan to visit you all again in a year or two. In the meantime, come see us in Boulder!
We have a handful of local Colorado shows coming up:
Friday, October 6th – Local 46 in Denver
Saturday, November 4th – The Walnut Room with decker. and Brian Allison in Denver
Saturday, November 18th – Very Nice Brewing Company in Nederland
Saturday, January 13th– The Laughing Goat in Boulder
With love and our very best harmonies,
Steph & Badger (The Fremonts)
When last we checked in we had played 16 shows. So we'll pick up the tiny memories where we left off:
17) Kendra Swanson wowed us with her beautiful voice and fierce clawhammer banjo stylings in Madison, WI.
18) While in Hamtramck, we gorged on delicious Middle Eastern food after listening to The Whiskey Charmers throw down some sick outlaw country.
19) Badger was gifted a 40 year-old pick from his Uncle Gene before their show in Rochester. Good luck charm: Check.
20) Steph sang harmonies with our friends Tough Old Bird at the Sofar Soundsgig in Buffalo. Badger was pretty stoked to be a groupie.
21) Heartstrings were pulled by pangs of missing our old Westchester home as we crossed the Tappan Zee Bridge to our show at the cozy Art Cafe in Nyack.
22) The LIC Bar brought us back to where it all began! We played a few of our first shows here back when we called ourselves "The Weight Boys Band".
23) "And now for something completely different," should have been blazing in the form of a neon sign above our heads as we followed a five piece power-punk band at Olive's.
24) We added a last minute show at The Prairie Whale in The Berkshires. Little did we know that the setting would be so beautiful, the dinner audience so loving and the proprietor of the establishment such a charmer. Badger ate the best pork chop of his entire life. Seriously... the BEST pork chop.
25) We could probably write and entire email about The Dream Away, we love it and you should go there. To keep it brief, we shared the stage with The Crazy Neighbors and then spent the night in "The Shed". The Shed is beautiful wood cabin with a sauna in it. The sauna, when mixed with fantastic whiskey, is the definition of bliss.
26) After our show at Rockwood Music Hall, Badger blew his voice out at karaoke while doing his back-pocket party trick: impersonating all three Beastie Boys.
27) At our first private house party, we were surrounded by some of our most beloved friends and made a few new ones. Our host, Kari, broke out her djembe drum. #worldmusic
28) After many years performing on the stage of The Stonington Opera Houseas actors, we were over the moon about playing our first show there as musicians. We also took a boat to a remote island to check out a fantastic lighthouse. Many lobster rolls were consumed.
29) After our show at The Vinyl Lounge, we plumped up on fantastic blueberry cake & monkey bread at Rare Sweets Bakery. If you are ever in the D.C. area, you should plump up there as well.
30) Nashville blew our minds! Outside of playing with the crazy-talented Kelly Hoppenjans & Ben Sparaco, we graced the stage of The Bluebird Cafe at their open mic night. Steph got a case of vintage dress envy from The Country Music Hall of Fame and Badger desperately wants to get a mother-of-pearl inlay of "The Fremonts" on his fretboard.
31) After our show at San Loo, Steph had some help loading the gear from a new friend who said, "I love Boulder. It's the best place to be homeless!" And this is one of the reasons we love Boulder.
32) Kansas City was showing off. Our hats are eternally tipped to the best sound-man of the entire tour, Andy at Minibar. Also, we saw The Secret Sisters. If you haven't done so yet, go listen to their new album. You can thank us later.
33) Karen & Ed Petitt welcomed us into their home and invited a bunch of their friends for one helluva house show. After the crowd dispersed, they sang a few beautiful folks songs for us and schooled us on some awesome songwriting history.
34) Back in Lincoln, we were excited to share a bill with some college friends of Steph, Mike & Kerry, who front a wonderful band: The Bottle Tops. Fun fact: Mike's grandma was Steph's childhood piano teacher.
35) It was a bittersweet night in Omaha as we reunited with The Cavalier for what was their final show as a band. So much love to them and all their future musical endeavors.
36) We wrapped it all up in Green Hollow at The Loess Hills Music Festival. This is now our third time playing for this wonderful event. The benevolent ghosts of Steph's family history were definitely tapping their toes for this one.
